Tripartite motif containing 28 (TRIM28) is a transcriptional co-factor with pleiotropic biological activities, especially in tumor cells. In this study, expression levels of TRIM28 in osteosarcoma (OS) tissues and the correlations with clinicopathological variables were investigated in 87 OS cases, meanwhile, cell and animal experiments were performed to detect the biological functions of TRIM28. The results showed that TRIM28 was overexpressed in OS tissues compared with normal bones, and TRIM28 expression correlated significantly with tumor diameter (χ2 = 4.06, p=0.04), metastasis (χ2 =11.10, p< 0.01) and clinical stage (χ2 =15.50, p< 0.01). Furthermore, patients with high TRIM28 level always had poor survival (p < 0.01). Functionally, TRIM28 knockdown significantly inhabited cell ability of proliferation and migration in OS cell lines of in vitro and in vivo experiments. Additionally, TRIM28 could significantly inhibited E-cadherin expression in reducing the stability of the TRIM28 mRNA. Therefore, TRIM28 overexpression was correlated with malignant progression of OS and poor survival of OS patients, and TRIM28 pathway may be a therapeutic target for OS.